Recent years have witnessed significant progress in understanding neural circuit development, synaptic plasticity, neural stem cell biology, and brain disorders. The goal of the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology is to facilitate the interaction of global neuroscientists to demystify brain function and explicate the causes of brain disorders. The meeting will bring together neuroscientists working at the forefront of the molecular and cellular basis of neuronal polarity, circuitry assembly and function, mechanisms of plasticity, molecular basis of behavior, regenerative neuroscience, and brain disorders, to allow them to discuss in depth all aspects of the most recent advances in the field and to stimulate new directions in neuroscience research. It will also facilitate the interaction among neuroscientists in different geographic regions including US, Asia and Europe and to promote interdisciplinary and international collaborations for better understand of complex neural disorders. Moreover, it will promote and foster the next generation of neuroscientists. This will be accomplished by offering short talks to students, post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty members and providing an interactive forum to engage them during talk and poster sessions, and social hours. Innovative approaches include reserving first two questions for students and postdoctoral fellows, meet the speakers program, and one-slide/one-minute snapshots of poster introduction. Finally, the 2012 Hong Kong GRC meeting will offer the first Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology that is attended only by students and post-doctoral fellows and a keynote speaker invited by them. The meeting will facilitate the interaction of global neuroscientists, established or junior, to demystify brain function at multiple levels and explicate the causes of brain disorders. We anticipate that attendees will leave with a newfound understanding of the progress in neurosciences and its translational values for neurological and mental disorders, together with a strong platform for further exploration and collaboration.